Genetic 'Wiring' of Seeds Revealed

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2011) — The genetic 'wiring' that helps a seed to decide on the perfect time to germinate has been revealed by scientists for the first time. Plant biologists at The University of Nottingham have also discovered that the same mechanism that controls germination is responsible for another important decision in the life cycle of plants -- when to start flowering.

Their discovery throws light on the genetic mechanisms that plants use to detect and respond to vital environmental cues and could be a significant step towards the development of new crop species that are resistant to climate change and would help secure future food supplies.

Seeds in the soil sense a whole range of environmental signals including temperature, light, moisture and nutrients, when deciding whether to germinate or to remain dormant.

To ensure that the decision for a seed to germinate is made at the perfect moment to ensure survival, evolution has genetically 'wired' seeds in a very complex way to avoid making potentially deadly mistakes

ScienceDaily (May 18, 2011) — The genetic 'wiring' that helps a seed to decide on the perfect time to germinate has been revealed by scientists for the first time. Plant biologists at The University of Nottingham have also discovered that the same mechanism that controls germination is responsible for another important decision in the life cycle of plants -- when to start flowering.

Their discovery throws light on the genetic mechanisms that plants use to detect and respond to vital environmental cues and could be a significant step towards the development of new crop species that are resistant to climate change and would help secure future food supplies.

Seeds in the soil sense a whole range of environmental signals including temperature, light, moisture and nutrients, when deciding whether to germinate or to remain dormant.

To ensure that the decision for a seed to germinate is made at the perfect moment to ensure survival, evolution has genetically 'wired' seeds in a very complex way to avoid making potentially deadly mistakes

"In the last two decades there have been dramatic changes in our understanding of how evolution works," said Gunter Wagner, the Alison Richard Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) and senior author of the paper. "We used to believe that changes only took place through small mutations in our DNA that accumulated over time. But in this case we found a huge cut-and-paste operation that altered wide areas of the genome to create large-scale morphological change."

and

"These transposons are not genes that underwent small changes over long periods of time and eventually grew into their new role during pregnancy," Lynch said. "They are more like prefabricated regulatory units that install themselves into a host genome, which then recycles them to carry out entirely new functions like facilitating maternal-fetal communication" Lynch said.

As another blog asks - where did the "cut-and-paste" come from?

"seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness" Matthew 6:33